Google has since January announced that small businesses that make use of its services business suites of applications will no longer be able to use it for free anymore. Those who have been using the services for over a decade now have to pay some fees as Google is set to put its customizable email service as well as other workplace apps behind a paywall.

Many small business owners were surprised by the news one of which is Richard J. DaltonJr. who is a longtime user of Google business suite to take care of his small business in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“They’re basically strong-arming us to switch to something paid after they got us hooked on this free service,” said Mr. Dalton, who first set up a Google work email for his business, Your Score Booster, in 2008.

Henceforth, longtime users of the G-Suite legacy free edition – an application suite consisting of its customizable email, Docs, and Calendar have to start paying a monthly charge of about US$6 for each business email address.

In fact, the switch will be made compulsory by June 27th for anyone that doesn’t voluntarily switch by that period. And failure to pay by Aug. 1st will result in account suspension.

The fact that Google is asking for a subscription fee on a monthly basis out of the blue might be disappointing, especially with the fact that the company makes billions in profits every single year. This makes the small business owners feel overwhelmed by the tech giant.

One of those that felt the sudden hit included Patric Gant who is the owner of Think it Creative, a marketing consultancy in Ottawa. “It’s hard to feel sorry for someone who received something for free for a long time and now is being told that need to pay for it. But there was a promise that was made. That’s what compelled me to make the decision to go with Google versus other alternatives.” He said.

Google is known to have infiltrated several industries outside of its search business. The company operates a suite of services both for individuals, SMEs, and large corporations alike. With billions in revenue yearly, one might just suggest that allowing small businesses to operate under its wings by using its apps for free isn’t necessarily a bad idea but again, Google isn’t necessarily a charity organization. The bottom line is to make a profit as much as it possibly can each and every year in order to continuously please its investors.

In fact, the initial deadline was said to have been May 1st but due to a lot of complaints from longtime users of the G-Suite service, this was shifted. However, Google is saying that those using old accounts for personal usage rather than for-profit can continue to do so for free.

Google just wants you to pay some dollars in as much as you are making some dollars off of its services in your business.

Those who are still on the fence about paying or just abandoning G-Suite are complaining about how hard it is for them to get in touch with customer support services.

The deadline is in 7-days’ time and those who are yet to make up their minds will be auto-switched to the premium version by the 27th.

In an interview with The New York Times, a number of small business owners who felt disappointed by Google’s move gave their own take on how the new change has impacted their establishments.

“I don’t mind you kicking us off,” said Samad Sajanlal, owner of Supreme Equipment Company, which does software consulting and other tech services in McKinney, Texas. “But don’t give us an unrealistic deadline to go and find an alternative while you’re still deciding if you really want to kick us off in the first place.”

One of the main reasons they couldn’t reach customer support was that Google has now turned that off for the free versions even though it said it has provided multiple ways to get in touch with the company for help with the transition.

When Google started what would become its G-Suite, they were offered for free in an attempt to compete directly against Microsoft’s office suite. But the search giant’s direction was quite different as it offered the software to small businesses entirely for free. In fact, it allowed those with custom domain names to make use of Gmail for their email service.

Google assured businesses that relied on this suite of apps that the service would remain free forever even though it says that the terms of service for its business software stated that the company could suspend or terminate the offering in the future.

Google stopped new free sign-ups in December 2012 but continued to support the accounts of what became known as the G Suite legacy free edition.

Not until the year 2020 did Google rebrand the G-Suite to Google Workspace and the company boosted the number of users to be over 3 billion in total. Over 7 million organizations or individuals pay for versions with additional tools and customer support – an increase from 6 million back in 2020.

“We’re here to help our customers with this transition, including deep discounts on Google Workspace subscriptions,” Katie Wattie, a Google spokeswoman, said in a statement. “Moving to a Google Workspace subscription can be done in a few clicks.”

Another person who felt the upgrade came at the wrong time is Mr. Dalton who helps Canadian students get into American universities. In his statement, the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on his business due to the fact that venues are often canceled while some universities suspend test requirements.

Small businesses felt the major impact of COVID and based on analysis, between April 2020 and March 2021, business revenue was nearly halved with sales dropping by another 20% the next year. However, just recently, things seem to be getting better bit by bit even though businesses like Your Score Booster say it’s still lagging its pre-pandemic performance.

“At this point, I’m focused on getting my business to recover,” Mr. Dalton said. “The last thing I want to do is change a service.” So he asked his two part-time employees to start using their personal email addresses for work, and he is considering upgrading the remaining 11 accounts to the cheapest version of Google Workspace.

Mr. Gant has been using Gmail since its infancy back in 2004. He runs a one-man shop and despite the fact that there were alternatives, he stuck with the service for so many years because he wasn’t ready to deal with unnecessary hassles. But now, he’ll have to revisit that decision whether to continue using Gmail or make a switch.

Another consideration of his include the likes of Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCloud, or ProtonMail. Either way, he’ll have to make his choice by the end of the month.

If he’s going with Microsoft, it’ll cost him about CA$100/year while Apple would cost about US$50/year, or ProtonMain which is about US$160/year. On the other hand, Google would give him a three-month free trial and then charge US$50/year before doubling the price by next year (US$100).

Mr. Sajanlal, the sole employee of his business, signed up for Gmail’s business service in 2009. Years later, he added his brother-in-law, Mesam Jiwani, to his G Suite account when he started a business of his own. That company, Fast Payment Systems, has helped small businesses in states including Texas and New York to process credit card payments since 2020.

When the news about the new changes came, Mr. Jiwani’s response was “Are you serious? They’re going to start ripping us off?” With the transaction of his 3,000 clients stored on Google Drive, he had no option but to pay for the services even though he is said to be considering a switch to Zoho.

Mr. Sajanlal on the other hand moved away from Google in March, setting up his business emails on Nextcloud. Another small business that abandoned Google for its rival is Stian Oksavik who owns a side business called BeyondBits in Loxahatchee.

“It was less about the amount they’re charging and more about the fact that they changed the rules,” Mr. Oksavik said. “They could change the rules again at any time.”